Vista?
Try booting up in safe mode. Also check to see if it needs to be defragged and run a chkdsk to check for errors on your hard drive.
If it’s just slow at the power-on sequence (not necessarily the “boot” itself), you should probably check to see whether your antivirus software (and update software for everything else) isn’t set to “run at startup.”
How many active startup items do you have?
2. Download CCleaner and run that afterward to help assure traces are gone.
3. Go to the Start button and type in msconfig.exe and if in Vista, run as Administrator. Go to your Startup tab and look at all items your are starting up. You don't need the Adobe Preloader, Adobe Updater, Java Updater, QuickTime Updater, etc. Uncheck all of those. Check all the rest of your loading items on in Google by typing in the program name (comes right before “.exe”). If you need to feel comfortable with getting updates to all of the above programs, download Secunia PSI and have that run in their place. It is much smaller and checks a ton more programs.
4. Make sure your antivirus and antispyware aren't bogging your system down. The tightest antivirus is probably ESET’s NOD32. Others to consider are the free Avira, but AVG and Avast both take quite a bit of resources. For free, get Avira.
Run the Disk Defragmenter after all the above. You will have probably gotten yourself back to the best speed you had before.
Does the screen freeze for more than 30 seconds during boot? If so, tell what you are seeing.
It could be many things. For instance, they could have left the bios setting on which scans all of memory. (This is probably a good thing to leave.) If they left the memory scan on, then the BIOS usually tells you that it is scanning memory.
They could have also altered the order of device searching during the boot where your hard disk might be low on the list.
There could also be a lot of things added to your startup. A lot of new computers, or newly loaded computers, get a bunch of garbage loaded at startup in order to send you pop-ups describing the stuff they want you to buy. Do you notice more items in the task tray on the far right lower corner?
Turn off ALL of your firewall, phishing, virus software. And then get all of the crap on your desktop...if that doesn’t work then get a new computer!
re-format
get an extra hard drive and have one that contains ONLY work and the other boot drive for fun and games
get a good pc cleanup program regclean is a good one
Despite what BreezyDog suggests, do NOT turn off your firewall and virus protection software! If you want to go this route, then first reach around behind and UNPLUG from the internet, then turn off those protections and reboot. Do not replug until you have your firewall and virus protection back in place.
I’d start with “start/run/msconfig” check your list of startup programs. I’d start by disabling all of them. Sometimes I’d leave things like any sort of sound card software running. But I’d disable as much as possible. If it boots faster, use process of elimination from there.
Reboot your computer and log into the BIOS Setup (F2 on a Dell). Check to see if you computer is configured to do a fast (quick) boot or if configured to run a complete system diagnostic upon boot-up. This can add several minutes to the boot process, depending on your computer.
The Geek squad around here will configure any computer to run the dignostics upon startup (helps to identify hardware issues before the OS is loaded); they usually don’t reset the computer to run a quick boot, you have to do that yourself.
bookmark
I do this for a living and I have seen in recent months hundreds of examples of what you describe. In fact tomorrow I am re-imaging the hard drives of an entire branch of the company I work for..,
The cause is currently unknown - but a complete ‘from scratch’ - wiping out the volume partitions on the hard drive — then reinstalling Windows XP or Vista from the CD — then reinstalling all your applications - will return you computer to normal... Drastic - yes - but nothing less will do the job... BUT - first you must back up all your data - My Documents, document folders, etc. — then restore them after the re-installation.
Sorry - but that is the way it is...
After tomorrow - I have Six more Corporate Branches to go...
I had the Geek squad come to my home, seems some tree trunks were interfering with my cables, putting strain on them and not allowing a “full” connection, cables were replaced with lots of slack..internet, phone and television reception are now first rate.
Save.
While you are in MSCONFIG, uncheck Ready Boost and Superfetch under Running Processes ( Applications ) - I think that is what it is called. I have a Chinese Operating system so am not sure of the tab names. Although these are not the problem with startup, once you are running, things will go smoother. These use a lot of memory and it will clear that up for you. They are services that are not really needed.
How much RAM do you have? Click Cotrol-Alt-Delete ONCE Click on the Performance Tab and check your CPU Usage. When the Motherboard fried it may have fried a RAM chip as well that they didn’t catch. Sometimes with low RAM they’ll chug along slow or sometimes a bad RAM chip will give a BSOD.
I’d bet a dollar that the problem isn’t with the OS, or anything on the disk. I’d consider settings in the BIOS, boot sequence, low power CPU clock setting that doesn’t get fixed until the OS gets in and figures it out, or something like that.
Remember, the problem started with a fried MoBo.
BIOS settings may not be set right by Geek Squad when they replaced it. It’s worth going into setup at (press F2 or some other key at initial boot time) and checking the boot sequence. Could be it’s trying to boot off of something that’s waiting for a timeout, like a non-existent floppy or CD.
Also, there may be a flash upgrade for the MoBo. Check the manufacturers web site. Go there and plug in your comp’s model number and look for a BIOS flash upgrade.
If there is an upgrade available, go ahead and do it. But read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully. Flash upgrade isn’t usually hard to do. Self-service is fine if you are careful.
You’ve gotten a lot of good advice on this thread. One other thing to check ... does your computer have multiple modes of accessing the internet turned on? I’ve seen devices that are using WiFi, Phone Cards and a wired connection and they are all battling each other for dominance. Turn off the extraneous modes and it boots a whole lot faster.